For many years, fishermen have used both bait casting fishing reels and spin casting fishing reels, each having certain advantages and disadvantages. In a typical bait casting fishing reel, a spool is rotatably mounted on a spool hub positioned generally perpendicular to the fishing rod as well as the fishing line. The spool hub remains in a fixed position with respect to the reel housing. When reeling in the fishing line, the spool rotates about the spool hub, a line guide is driven to oscillate in and out above the spool and spool hub to evenly distribute the line on the spool as the spool is rotated and takes up line. An advantage of a typical bait casting reel is that during line takeup, the angler is able to maximize the test of the line because the line is taken up at an angle perpendicular to the spool and wound directly onto the spool. Another advantage is that less twist or snarl results in the line because it is fed onto the spool during takeup at an angle of 90 degrees, resulting in fewer line snarls due to less twist in the line, and fewer replacements of the line when it becomes twisted. However, when casting a bait casting fishing reel, given that the line is oriented at 90 degrees from the spool, the spool of the bait casting reel tends to overunwind and create backlash when casting, resulting in more line than necessary unwinding from the spool. As a result, the line may get tangled and create a knot or birds nest of the fishing line which can cause aggravation to the fisherman and require time to unsnarl. Meanwhile, an undesirable slack in the line may cause an angler to delay his retrieve and possibly result in a lost strike, or lost fish. To prevent the overunwinding or backlash of the line during casting, the angler typically monitors the outflow of line and may place a thumb or finger over the line on the spool to apply pressure to the spool in an attempt to avoid backlash. This may serve to reduce the distance a lure may be casted.
A typical spin casting reel, or spinning reel, on the other hand, includes a spool that is rotationally fixed relative to the reel housing and does not rotate. When retrieving the line, the bail housing, bail, and line guide of the bail (bail assembly) are driven to rotate about the rotationally fixed spool and serve to wind the line onto the spool. While the bail assembly rotates, the rotationally fixed spool is oscillated in and out so that the line guide of the bail lays the line down evenly on the spool during line takeup. A disadvantage of the spinning reel mechanism is that with line being wound onto the spool via the rotating bail assembly, with an indirect line takeup, the line tends to twist, eventually resulting in undesirable snarls and more frequent line replacement. With the indirect line takeup used in the spinning reel, the amount of pulling force the angler can apply is reduced, as opposed to a direct pick line pickup. Further, an angler may fear tripping or bending the bail if too much pulling force is applied. Nonetheless, the spinning reel is deemed to have several advantages over bait casting reels when it comes to casting. Because the spool is fixed and does not rotate during the cast, the line comes of the spool more easily and the spinning rod is able to cast the lure farther, particularly when using light lures. Moreover, the backlash often associated with bait casting reels is typically avoided when using the fixed spool of the spinning reel because it does not rotate, and thereby does not overunwind the line which sometimes happens when casting with a bait casting reel.
It is apparent that bait casting reels and spin casting reels each have their advantages and disadvantages. It is desirable to create a fishing reel that operates in certain respects like a bait casting reel when retrieving line and in certain respects like a spinning reel when casting line.